Biography

Leslie Dwyer is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict at S-CAR. She joined the faculty of S-CAR in 2009. She is a cultural anthropologist (BA, University of Pennsylvania; MA/Ph.D., Princeton University) whose academic research focuses on issues of violence, gender, post-conflict social life, transitional justice, and the politics of memory and identity. Her most recent project, supported by grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace, is an ethnographic study of the aftermath of political violence in Indonesia, where she has worked for over 20 years. Her book on this research, entitled ‘A World in Fragments’: Aftermaths of Violence in Bali, Indonesia, will be published in the University of Pennsylvania Press “Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights” series. She is a documentary filmmaker whose most recent film, The Black Highway, engages critically with post-conflict peace-building practices in Aceh, Indonesia.

In addition to her academic research, Dr. Dwyer has engaged in a wide range of conflict analysis and resolution practice and training projects. She is currently collaborating on a project to assess and address conflict over land and natural resources in Indonesia, working with international and national civil society partners and government agencies. From 2013-16, she was the Director of the Indonesia-U.S. Youth Leadership Program, an exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that taught conflict resolution and leadership skills to youth. In addition to her work in Indonesia, Dr. Dwyer has conducted research in Mindanao, Philippines and Nepal on gender, peace-building and gender-based violence. She has also assisted U.S. government agencies and educational organizations with developing training curricula on gender and conflict issues.

Fall 2018

Research

GMU Center for Global Studies

Dr. Dwyer received a grant from GMU's Center for Global Studies (http://cgs.gmu.edu) for research on the dynamic tensions between local and international perspectives on post-conflict peacebuilding in Aceh, Indonesia.